ELIZABETHTON, Tenn. -- If Pulaski is to win its first Appalachian League title since 1991, it will have to do it the hard way.

Managing just one hit over the last five innings Wednesday night, the Mariners dropped Game 1 of the best-of-3 semifinal series to West Division runner-up Elizabethton 7-4 at O'Brien Field.

The Mariners return home to Calfee Park tonight at 7 with all-league selection Tim Boyce on the mound. To parlay their East Division title into a trip to the championship series against either Johnson City or Burlington, they'll have to win tonight and a third game Friday night.

"We are a different team at home," manager Eddie Menchaca said. "But we're going to have to do more with their pitching than get five or six hits. It's tough to win when you don't get a lot of production."

After scoring in each of the first three innings and taking a 4-2 lead, Pulaski came within an eyelash of tallying a two-out run in the fourth. However, catcher Larry Gonzalez was nailed at the plate as he tried to score on Jake Schlander's looping single to left.

From that point, starter Manuel Soliman and reliever Michael Tonkin retired 15 of the last 17 men they faced, permitting just a two-out single to Schlander in the seventh and plunking Jabari Blash with two outs in the ninth. Tonkin earned the win with 2 ¹₃ hitless innings.

Mariners reliever Tim Griffin, who breezed through the seventh, drew the loss after allowing three runs in the bottom of the eighth.

Gunner Glad opened the eighth with his second double and moved to third on Jamaal Hawkins' sacrifice bunt. With Nate Roberts at the plate, Griffin bounced a 1-1 breaking ball off Gonzalez to the backstop, enabling Glad to sprint home.

For insurance, Daniel Ortiz laced a two-run double -- his team's seventh of the evening -- with the sacks full.

Jetsy Extrano gave Pulaski a quick lead in the first with a long two-run homer to left. The Mariners tacked on single runs in the second when Blash scored on a wild pitch and in the third on a two-out error.

But Pulaski starter Stephen Kohlscheen simply couldn't hold back the Twins' bats. Making his third appearance against them in less than two weeks, Kohlscheen needed 94 pitches to work through four innings, allowing seven hits and four runs.

The M's bullpen provided three scoreless innings after Kohlscheen's departure, with Ryan Kiel fanning the side in the sixth to extricate himself from a bases loaded, no-out situation.

After pumping an inning-ending third strike past Ortiz, Kiel pumped his fist and was greeted in front of the dugout by several teammates who mobbed him.

"I thought it might give us the momentum," Menchaca said, "but I also knew we hadn't done much offensively since early in the game."

And as it turned out, the Pulaski bats continued in snooze mode.

Pulaski 211 000 000 -- 4 5 1

Elizabetown 110 200 03x -- 7 14 1

Kohlscheen, Leigh (5), Kiel (6), Griffin (7) and Gonzalez. Soliman, Tonkin (7) and Arias. W--Tonkin (1-0). L--Griffin (0-1). HR--Extrano (P), 1st, one on.